Great Rock Albums of 1978: Patti Smith Group- Easter

One great thing visiting all of these classic albums does for me in other ways is to take me down various alleys off memory lane. The same applies to this classic rock album. See, I first learned of the Patti Smith Group when I saw them perform on the old Saturday Night Live Show way back in 1978. This was the original Saturday Night Live, which brought us the talents of Dan Akroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, the late Gilda Radner. (I won’t name the entire crew here.) As was the norm, the Patti Smith Group performed two songs and though I can never remember what the second song was, the first song was the famous rock anthem, “Because the Night.”

I remember when this album first came out, everyone (at least in my redneck area) called the Patti Smith Group a punk rock group. Even Saturday Night Live kind of made fun when Gilda Radner came up with the character, Punk Rock Star Candy Slice, who many thought was based on Patti Smith.

When I listened to the album, I never considered the album to be punk, nor did I care if it was. To me, it was just a great rocking album with some great tracks like “Rock and Roll Nigger” as well as the well known single already mentioned.

Track Listing:

1. Til Victory

2. Space Monkey

3. Because the Night

4. Ghost Dance

5. Babeloque

6. Rock And Roll Nigger

7. Priviledge (Set Me Free)

8. We Three

9. 25th Floor

10. High on Rebellion

11. Easter

The Patti Smith Group

Patti Smith- vocals, guitar

Lenny Kaye- guitar, bass

Jay Dee Dougherty- drums, percussion

Ivan Kral- bass, guitar

Bruce Brody- keyboards, synthesiser

If this album is to be branded punk, then it does a magnificent job of bridging the gap between punk and more mainstream rock from the time. “Easter” is one of those albums that everyone remembers when talking about the classic albums. It always manages to sneak in there with all of the great albums of 1978. I shall always remember it for this and its brilliant music.